


7. Isolation

by orphan_account



Series: Whumptober 2019 [7]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Spider-Man - All Media Types
Genre: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Audible, Author projecting onto Peter Parker, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Ned Leeds is a Good Bro, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Peter Parker has ADHD, The Scarlet Letter, Whumptober 2019, internalized ableism, loose interpretation of the prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-08
Updated: 2019-10-08
Packaged: 2020-11-27 10:28:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20946848
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: After a reading quiz in English, Peter's ADHD makes him feel more alone than ever.This is largely based off of real experiences





	7. Isolation

**Author's Note:**

> I have never been diagnosed with ADHD, but I share a lot of the common traits. This story is more or less exactly what happened to me in High School except it was a different book and I didn't have a Ned.

Peter had always excelled at school. Math came naturally for him. He loved science and would go out of his way to learn everything he could. After the spider bite, even gym was a breeze.

English was another story.

He could still get an A, but it was very difficult. Far more difficult than it should’ve been. It could take him anywhere from 10 to 20 hours to write a 4 page essay, even if he purposely tried to take away any distractions. He’d be in the middle of a sentence and his brain would go off on this random tangent about Star Wars. The next thing he knew, 30 minutes had gone by without him getting anything done. It was exhausting.

Reading brought its own share of problems. He was perfectly fine if he liked the story, but otherwise, he could read the same paragraph five times and still not get it. The main difference between reading and writing was with writing, he’d eventually finish. He rarely finished a book for school.

That didn’t mean he would try. He tried every time. Peter spend almost an entire night working through the beginning of  _ The Scarlet Letter _ for a quiz. After many hours, he’d finally succeeded. He made it to class the next day fairly confident things would be okay. He at the very least understood what happened.

One would think that would be enough, but they’d be mistaken. It turned out that the teacher had a vendetta against students that used sites like Sparknotes instead of actually reading. All of the questions were insane specific. “Who said this quote?” “What was the profession of [insert random side character here]?” Peter could piece together some answers based on his memory, but most seemed so out of nowhere. He would’ve thought the teacher passed out the wrong paper if he didn’t see  _ The Scarlet Letter _ written at the top.

He eventually gave in to his failure and just started guessing. He handed in his quiz knowing for a fact that most of the answers were wrong. On his way back to his desk, he heard students whispering to each other about how easy the quiz was. He spent the rest of class with his head on his desk, not able to pay attention to anything.

May had theorized a while ago that he had some form of ADHD. She wanted to get him tested, but he insisted he didn’t need anything. A part of him regretted that now. Maybe a psychologist could have figured out how to fix this. Even if he didn’t end up having that specific disorder, obviously something was wrong. This proved that. Peter had felt lonely before, but he’d never felt more isolated in his life. Knowing his brain worked differently than everyone else’s in such a fundamental way hurt. Part of him felt guilty. So many people had much worse things to worry about.

Luckily, Peter had lunch next, so he has time to collect his thoughts before his next class. “Hey, Peter,” Ned said as he sat down at the lunch table. “Warning for history, make sure you know the-“ He cut himself off when he noticed Peter’s expression. “Woah, what’s up? You okay?”

He didn’t know exactly how to answer. On one hand, there was definitely something wrong with his head. Even so, it wasn't something he necessarily wanted to talk to anyone about. “Yeah, I’m okay. I forgot, have you had english yet?”

“Nah, but I heard people talking about the quiz. They said it was easy, but-” Peter abruptly looked away and laid his lead down on the table. “Oh! Um, don’t worry about them, Peter. They probably only thought it was easy cause they didn’t try. They probably got every question wrong.”

“No,” Peter mumbled. “Everyone did good on the quiz. My brain is just stupid.”

“You’re brain isn’t stupid. You got a scholarship here. Everyone else just paid their way in. Who cares about a little quiz.”

He snapped his head back up. “It wasn’t just…” He shook his head. “Sorry, sorry. I’m just gonna.” He got up and left the cafeteria without eating anything. Ned followed.

“Peter!” He grabbed his arm. “Peter, what’s going on?”

He looked around the empty hallway before locking eyes with Ned again. “It’s not just a quiz. It’s always like this. I read those chapters so many times, but none of that clicked. I don’t remember a single one of those quotes being in the book. I don’t even remember what any of the quotes were and the quiz was less than an hour ago. There’s… There’s something wrong with me. May thinks I have ADHD or something, but…”

Ned took a second to respond. “Have you been tested, or whatever they call it?”

“No, No. I looked it up a while ago. Screenings can cost a lot of money, especially when the thing you’re being screened for doesn’t hurt you. I’m fine, really..”

“Peter,” Ned put a hand on each of his, “I mean this in the best way possible, but you just had a meltdown in the cafeteria. If you think you need a screening, you should get it.” He put his hands down. “For now, did we get more reading tonight?”

Peter froze. “I honestly have no idea.”

“Alright, that’s okay. I have that class next, so I can check. If we do, we can hang out tonight and I can help you.”

“You don’t have to do that.”

“Hey, remember that time everyone in my group for a chem project ditched me and you stayed up all night helping me with the presentation? I owe you one.”

Peter smiled. “Thank you.”

* * *

It turned out they did have reading. Ned showed up at Peter’s apartment about two hours after school ended. “I looked up some ADHD things online,” He said.

“Oh, you didn’t have to.”

“Yeah, but I wanted to. Turns out this is pretty common. I found some tricks that might help you out.” He pulled out his phone. “I completely forgot I had Audible until I went to go get an account. Apparently I had 10 credits. Anyway, I spend one of them on  _ The Scarlet Letter _ . I saw a bunch of people saying it helps to listen to a book read to you while doing something mindless to keep your hands busy. Maybe you could make some web fluid?”

He gave Ned a hug. “Thank you.”

“Of course.” They spend the next hour listening to Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel while doing other mindless tasks. Even if this didn’t end up working out, at least Peter knew Ned would be there to make is isolation a little less lonely.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you liked it.
> 
> BTW, that audiobook trick is something I do. It's done wonders for my reading comprehension. I know it won't work for everyone, but I wanted to share.


End file.
